1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to digital electronic watches, and more particularly to a digital watch having a light emitting diode (LED) display, capable of displaying horological data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the art, the practice has been to provide for the display of four digits, and to utilize the four digits to display either hours-minutes, seconds, or month-date. To avoid confusion of data, it is necessary to provide some way of indicating the nature of the data displayed. For example, if the time is 3:15, and the actual date is March 14, display of the month-date might be 3:14, but then there is a possibility of inadvertently calling for the time and thus obtaining the wrong date information. And even when the time is intended and displayed, it is sometimes desirable to indicate whether it is in the first or second twelve hours of a day. A 24-hour watch avoids that problem, but the greater market demand is for a 12-hour watch. In the past, a colon has been used to separate the hours and minutes in the display. When month-day is called up for display, only a half colon is displayed, thus indicating the time as 3:15 and the date as 3.15.
Electronic digital watches are quite accurate so that, once set, it is rarely necessary to again set the watch. However, on the few occasions that a watch is to be set, it is necessary to call up for display that part of the horological data that is in error. For example, when traveling across time zones or when a change is made to or from daylight savings time, it will be necessary to advance the hours counter to the proper hour. To accomplish that, the output of the hours counter must be displayed. In setting the hours there is an added problem of also indicating AM or PM. Otherwise the horological data can be a half day off.
The practice has been to provide one recessed button to control watch setting modes and one large button to control normal display of the horological data. In a watch having month, date hours, and minutes information, and separately controlled setting of month, date, hours and minutes, it is necessary to provide control of five operating modes with the recessed button, as follows: normal, month set, date set, hours set, and minutes set, each with corresponding display. It is mandatory to provide some indication to the user of the mode selected by the recessed button.